The present invention relates to a multi-wire connector with interlocking device by means of which a body of the connector, provided with a plurality of first connection terminals connected to respective conductive wires, is susceptible of being fitted and interlocked within a cavity in a base piece provided with other such connection terminals provided for coupling with said first connection terminals.
The invention is useful in the field of manufacturing and marketing electrical connectors for being used in the automotive industry.
Currently, multi-wire connectors are widely used which allow, by means of a single operation, to effect fast and safe connection of a plurality of electrical wires through respective connection terminal pairs, respectively fixed to a body and to a cavity of a base piece, susceptible of fitting each other effecting the simultaneous coupling of all terminal pairs.
The Spanish utility model ES-A-1047819, from the current applicant, discloses a connector provided with an improved lever. Such connector has a body provided with a plurality of first connection terminals connected to respective conductive wires for plugging into a base piece provided with other such second connection terminals. A lever shaped as an inverted “U” is jointed at the ends of its arms with regard to sides of the connector body. By virtue of such jointing, the lever can rotate a given angle between an open and closed position, said angle being limited by integral stops of the inner sides of said lever arms. In closed position, the bridge formed by the top end of the lever remains facing with a semi-cylindrical seat with an opposite concavity, determining between both a connection wire channeling strip. Both said semi-cylindrical seat and said lever bridge show resilient configurations that constitute a locking mechanism of one over the other when they are in said closed position to fix said ring-shaped strip around the cables, forming a bundle. These resilient configurations comprise side protuberances of the semi-cylindrical support, which are inserted in projecting lugs of the lever.
This connector, even though it has proven itself wholly effective in practice, with regard to the stops that limit the lever rotation angle and to the formation of said strip for the wire bundle when the lever is in closed position, shows some drawbacks susceptible of improvement. Firstly, the lack of interlocking means, which allow fixing the connector body in the base piece cavity when the connector is coupled and with all its terminal connected, it creates a disconnection risk due to vibrations or to tugging at the bundle of wires. On the other hand, the resilient configurations that constitute the lever locking mechanism on the semi-cylindrical support in the closed position are complex to form and awkward to handle.
The present invention solves the above problems by proposing a multi-wire connector of the type described above, provided with a interlocking device associated with said lever, to effect fixing of the connector body in the corresponding housing of the base piece at the same time that, by means of the displacement of said lever, a strip for confining the conductive wires that project from the connector body is configured, forming a bundle. The interlocking device comprises at least a first integral inter-locking configuration of a portion of the lever and at least a second integral interlocking configuration of an inner side wall of the cavity, the first and second interlocking configurations of which interfere with each other, remaining mutually interlocked when the lever is displaced from the open position to the closed position.
The connector of the present invention additionally contributes improvements in said lever locking mechanism in the closed position and in the stop configurations that limit the lever rotation angle. These improvements are to incorporate the stop configurations of the lever travel limits in side surfaces of the connector body to respectively interfere with first and second opposite side edges of the arms of the lever when the same is respectively in the open and closed positions, and in addition to place on said side surfaces of the connector body, from the open position to the closed position in the lever run, locking protuberances provided with a rounded or tapered edge and another abrupt opposite edge. These locking protuberances are arranged at the ends of respective flexible tabs which bend to the inside when the lever is displaced from the open position to the closed position by the effect of forces exerted by the arms against said tapered or rounded edges, allowing lever passage. Said flexible tabs resiliently recover when the lever overcomes the locking protuberances, whereby the abrupt edges thereof interfere with said second lever edges, immobilizing it in the closed position.
With these features, the connector of the invention has the advantage that, once the connector body is coupled to the base piece and the terminals are connected, by means of a simple lever displacement from the open position to the closed position three effects are achieved: the connector body remains fixed in the base piece cavity; the lever forms, in co-operation with the “U”-shaped support, said strip for the wire bundle; and the lever remains fixed in said closed position, preventing extraction of the connector body from the base piece and opening of said strip.
The lever locking mechanism in the closed position is reversible. By pressing with the fingers towards the inside on said flexible tabs, the lever is released and it can be returned to the open position, so that the wire bundle is released and the extraction of the connector body is enabled.